Gluten Free

Several months ago, Savannah developed a cough accompanied by a runny nose that just seemed like a normal little cold. She had recently started with her MDO program and BSF, so she had been around a lot more children (and germs) than normal. Savannah takes her whole food vitamins daily and we had even given her a little extra to help "kick the cough". But after a couple of weeks and the cough not going away, I took her to her pediatrician.

After explaining to the doctor the symptoms, the amount of time the cough had lasted and doing an exam, she concluded that it probably was just a little cold. There is no cough medicine (over-the-counter OR prescription) for children younger than 4 years old, so there wasn't much she could do. BUT she did find that Savannah had a minor ear infection in her left ear. She then asked if Savannah's behavior was unusually cranky, had a fever or lack of appetite. I answered 'no' to all of that. Then she explained that in some countries, they don't do anything for ear infections because they will eventually just clear up on their own. And since this ear infection didn't appear to bother Savannah, she wasn't too worried about it, but said it might also be the reason behind the cough and runny nose.

A couple of weeks go by, the ear infection clears up, but the cough and runny nose had not become any better. Now that we'd been dealing with this for about six weeks, we decided to get a second opinion and I made an appointment with a holistic doctor.

At that appointment, I again explained the sound of the cough and the amount of time we'd been dealing with it, etc. He also did a brief exam on Savannah and then his conclusion was: asthma. He gave me a prescription for an inhaler and directed me on how to use it with Savannah.

I called Caleb as soon as I left the appointment and although the diagnosis wasn't something he wanted to hear, he really didn't like the treatment plan. At 18 months old, he didn't want Savannah to be on drugs like that.

Later that afternoon, Caleb made a couple of phone calls to friends who are nutritionist and explained to them about Savannah and what the two doctors had diagnosed. Both of the nutritionist immediately suggested that it was a gluten (better known as a wheat) allergy. We were instructed to remove ALL gluten from Savannah's diet for two weeks and see how that effected the cough. If the cough subsided after those two weeks, we were then supposed to add the gluten back into her diet and see if the cough returned.

I wasn't looking forward to removing gluten from Savannah's diet once I learned all the things gluten is in. Basically all the foods she eats daily! Everything from her waffles at breakfast, to PB&J sandwichs or pizza for lunch, to spaghetti and bread for dinner. This was NOT going to be fun!

The three of us made a trip to the nearest Whole Foods store (30 minutes away) and realized there are a TON of gluten-free products! I was relieved to say the least. We loaded up on all things gluten-free and things that Savannah LOVES! We were able to get pizzas, tortillas, chips, rice, enchiladas, bread, waffles and more. It wasn't cheap, so it's a good thing we don't have to do this for our whole family, but we had our fingers crossed that THIS was our answer to getting rid of the cough.

Within about 3 days of being gluten-free, her cough was probably 80% better. Christmas day was day 12 and her cough was virtually gone. Since we were going to be out at family gatherings, we just decided to let her have gluten that day rather than taking HER food for the whole day. For 2 days, she ate any gluten foods that were around (no more than any normal day) and her cough came back 1000x worse than it had been 2 weeks before. Not only was the cough back, but her nose ran like a faucet, for real. It was awful and I felt so bad for her!

We went gluten-free again and within about a week her cough was almost gone again. We are suppose to keep her gluten-free 100% of the time for 6 months. That is the amount of time it takes for the body's cells to breakdown and rebuild. So that virtually means that in 6 months, she'll have all new "insides" that won't (or shouldn't be) allergic to gluten.

I'm thankful that we've found the cause of her cough and that we're able to control it without medications. The hardest part is remembering to take her chips or her bread, etc. with us when we are eating away from home, but she doesn't seem to notice a different and still finds plenty to eat and is just as happy as ever!

See....